Top US diplomat Antony Blinken headed to Israel on Sunday (August 18, 2024) seeking a Gaza ceasefire deal that could help avert a wider war, while a senior Hamas official dismissed "American diktats" in negotiations.
Making his ninth trip to the Middle East since the Gaza war began with Palestinian militants' October 7 attack, the secretary of state is due to meet Israeli leaders before truce talks resume in Cairo.
The U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators have reported progress in negotiations to clinch a ceasefire in the more than 10-month-old war, and a US official said the remaining gaps were "bridgeable".
But Hamas political bureau member Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP that optimism that a deal was close after two days of talks in Doha was "an illusion".
"We are not facing a deal or real negotiations, but rather the imposing of American diktats," he said.
A framework proposal laid out by U.S. President Joe Biden in late May and later endorsed by the UN Security Council would freeze fighting for an initial six weeks as Israeli hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and humanitarian aid enters the besieged Gaza Strip.
Previous optimism during months of on-off truce talks has proven unfounded. But the stakes have risen since the late July killings and the quick succession of Iran-backed militant leaders, including Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, and as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has deepened with a feared polio outbreak.
Israeli evacuation orders have "reduced the safe zone" in the south of the territory, leaving "no more space" for displaced Palestinians, said 32-year-old Samah Dib. Some people "are sleeping on the street" while clean water is scarce and "there's food at the markets, but it's very expensive and we have no money left", added Dib, one of those displaced.
As efforts towards a long-sought truce continued, so has the violence in Gaza but also in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in Lebanon, where Israeli forces and Hamas ally Hezbollah have traded near-daily fire throughout the war.
‘Not a good sign’
Civil defence rescuers in Hamas-run Gaza reported seven killed in Israeli bombardment in Deir al-Balah and four others in air strikes on the northern Jabalia refugee camp.
The latest killings helped push the Gaza health ministry's war death toll to 40,099.
Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
The Israeli military said troops "continue operational activity" in central and southern Gaza and had "eliminated" militants in Rafah, on the territory's border with Egypt.
From the Israeli-designated safe zone in southern Gaza's Al-Mawasi, Lina Saleha, 44, said she could hear "constant artillery shelling" and the rumble of tanks.
"There is no safe place in Gaza," she told AFP. "The Israeli tanks are getting closer. That's not a good sign and we're terrified and afraid."
The civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike on Saturday (August 17, 2024) killed 15 people in central Gaza's Al-Zawaida, where the military told AFP its forces had targeted rocket launchers.
In the West Bank, Israel said late Saturday (August 17, 2024) it had killed "two senior Hamas officials" in Jenin. Hamas's armed wing confirmed the deaths of militants Ahmad Abu Ara and Raafat Dawasi.
In Lebanon, the official National News Agency reported an Israeli air raid on a southern village. The UN said three peacekeepers were lightly wounded in a blast nearby.
Calls for 'pressure'
Iran and its regional allies have vowed retaliation for Haniyeh's death in Tehran — which Israel has not claimed responsibility for — and for an Israeli strike in Beirut that killed a top Hezbollah commander.
Diplomats have been shuttling around the region to push for a Gaza deal, which they see as the best way to avert a wider conflagration following the high-profile killings.
Mediators announced they had put forward a "bridging proposal", and talks are due to resume in the Egyptian capital in the coming days. In Israel, Mr. Blinken will seek to "conclude the agreement for a ceasefire and release of hostages and detainees", the State Department said.
Out of 251 hostages seized during Hamas's October 7 attack, 111 are still held in Gaza including 39 the military says are dead. More than 100 were freed during a one-week truce in November.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club watchdog said that since the start of the Gaza war, Israeli forces have detained "more than 10,000 Palestinians" in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in 1967.
A U.S. official travelling with Mr. Blinken said on condition of anonymity that "the feeling is... that various sticking points that existed before are bridgeable, and that work's going to continue."
Before Mr. Blinken departed for Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office called for "heavy pressure" on Hamas to reach a breakthrough.
Also Read: Analysis on Benjamin Netanyahu: A Prime Minister always at war
The Palestinian group as well as some analysts and Israeli protesters have accused Mr. Netanyahu of hamstringing a deal.
At a rally in the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Saturday (August 17, 2024), 51-year-old Guri Lotto said he was protesting to "put pressure on the Government" to secure a hostage release deal and end the war.
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